The Nightmarish Video Puzzle That’s Taking Over the Internet

I’ve always thought that Garindan, the spy from Star Wars: A New Hope, is a particularly menacing character. He lurks in shadows, looking like an alien plague doctor with his dark goggles, black hood, and long snout. But a mysterious video that’s been making the rounds online takes that sinister aesthetic to a whole other level.

Last week, Johny from GadgetZZ.com posted a writeup about a mysterious CD-ROM the site had received in the mail about three months before. The letter came from Poland to the site’s Swedish P.O. box, and at first it didn’t seem very interesting. The disc just had some numbers and letters written on one side that looked like a serial number.

When Johny looked at the contents of the disc, though, he discovered a strange video. In it, a creepy-beyond-creepy figure stands in a seemingly deserted building, at first in shadow and then plainly in a camera’s view. Staticky noise plays in the background and extremely subtle visual effects occasionally cross the screen as the figure gestures and holds up a blinking light. After you see it you know how the characters in TheRing felt when they watched the VHS tape that would mark them for death.

Here, take a look.

Unsettling, right??

It turns out that the video has also been floating around YouTube for a few months, so turn the Internet hivemind on it already, and let’s get to the bottom of this! Naturally, the Reddit thread is exploding, and people have pulled out a lot of interesting clues. A spectrogram of the video’s sound contains hidden messages like the phrase “You are already dead.” Some codes in the video translate to the coordinates of the White House, and others produce the letters “RED LIPS LIKE TENTH,” potentially an anagram for “KILL THE PRESIDENT.” The video also contains embedded still images of extreme violence against an unknown woman.

In spite of all these discoveries and clues, though, there’s still no consensus on what the video means or who made it. It could be some type of threat, a piece of art, or a viral content experiment. Whatever it is, it’s definitely freakin’ creepy.